On Mar 4, 11:33 am, "Kobra" wrote:

Ask yourself this: Why not drop full flaps just as you enter the 45?
Simple. It's inefficient. Why slow the plane down so early? Why add sooo
much drag and increase your time around the pattern and for what gain?

I haven't heard of gear-up landings running rampant due to setting the flaps
more than once. I haven't heard any pilot ever complaining about the
workload in the pattern because of setting the flaps.

With full flaps on the downwind you're dragging the plane around the pattern
at about 70 or 80 KIAS. Everyone behind you is probably at about 90 or 100
on those legs. Seems very inefficient. Other than that I can't think of
any reason not to drop full flaps on the DW.

Kobra

I didn't say you should drag it around on downwind.

A few points:

1) An ongoing problem with private pilots in the pattern is flying too
fast. Don't believe it? Go to the local patch and watch touch downs
1/2 way down the pavement followed by a high-speed roll to the last
taxiway.

2) Dropping full flaps at the numbers means you will turn base very
soon after that. This keeps the pattern tight and *reduces* the time
spent in the pattern.

3) Once on final a stabilized speed close to 1.3 Vso ensures a spot
landing, short roll out, and means the a/c is off the runway sooner
rather than later.

Seems reasonable to me...

Dan